Summary: Since the start of the financial crisis, the U.S. government has put $50 billion into General Motors. After GM emerged from bankruptcy this year, the public owned 61 percent of the stock of the newly reconstituted company. How much of that $50 billion will the American taxpayer get back? CEO Fritz Henderson says business at GM is getting better, which is at least a hopeful sign for repayment. But the situation at GM is so complicated, Henderson says, that he can't say yet how much money GM will be able to return to the public coffers. Longtime auto analyst John Casesa has crunched the numbers we have. He says GM would have to do everything right, in a strong economy, to pay back what it owes. Meanwhile, a Congressional Oversight Panel report says the public will get back less than half the money it used to bail out GM and Chrysler.
